Exploring the exciting new trend of combining community aid tourism with adventure travel, OXadventure from Kuwait have been visiting the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama over the past years, bringing multiple groups for community immersion programmes working with poor rural villagers to gain a more in-depth understanding of how real Sri Lankan’s live, and leave behind a positive legacy through community development work.

OXadventure was initiated in Kuwait with the mission to inspire youth through travel, charity and adventure, creating future leaders and global citizens with enriched minds who are able to utilize their learning and educational skills outside the classroom, in the real world. It also allows the youth to gain a deeper understanding of the world through living and working with locals.

OXadventure seeks to pull people out of their comfort zones, to experience a different way of life that puts the privileges we often take for granted into perspective.

On their 5th visit to Seenigama which took place from the 23rd March – 1st April 2017, Saud lead a group of 21 Kuwaiti youth to explore Sri Lanka and add value to the village life in Seenigama and its surrounding regions.

The group shared their time between volunteer work and sightseeing. The team spent most of their time at the Rathgama Village Heartbeat Project Empowerment Centre giving the buildings a fresh new coat of paint and interacting with the beneficiaries attending classes there.

In their free time, the group went down to Hikkaduwa to surf and even spent an enjoyable evening snorkeling at ‘Dive Seenigama, Dive Lanka’ (FoG’s dive tourism sustainable income generation venture) followed by a BBQ and bonfire by the beach. The group also took the chance to explore Galle Fort, pop down to Unawatuna to see Sri Lanka’s unique stilt fishermen and take a boat ride along the Madu River.

In addition to all the incredible community aid work, the team raised funds to donate 10 computer chairs and a laptop to the Rathgama VHP Centre to support the IT classes.

We had a wonderful time hosting this amazing group of people and hope to see more people get involved with community aid tourism, traveling for a cause and helping to uplift lives while exploring new countries.